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Alhambra Records is proud to present on this CD the world premiere release in stereo of Angelo Francesco Lavagnino’ absolutely brilliant symphonic score for the 1960 feature-length documentary LA GRANDE OLIMPIADE (THE GRAND OLYMPICS) about the XVII Olympics in Rome which was directed by Romolo Marcellini and released in Italian cinemas in early January 1961. It even got nominated for an Oscar as “Best Documentary Feature” in 1962.
Some jazzy parts of the score had also been composed by Lavagnino’s colleague and friend Armando Trovajoli (for example a “Mambo” which is very reminiscent of his famous “Mambo Bacan”) and have been included as bonus tracks at the end of our CD.
This wonderful CD project – the sixth CD in our Lavagnino series - has only been possible thanks to the generous support of the three daughters of the composer - Bianca, Iudica and Alessandra Lavagnino -, who still had all the open reel tape copies in stereo of the original mastertapes in their personal archive.
We have opted to put together in a chronological sequencing all the symphonic tracks by Lavagnino for LA GRANDE OLIMPIADE which make musical sense and which amount to an impressive duration of about 65 minutes. In these tracks Lavagnino can be heard at the peak of his creativity in providing a variety of really sumptuous and lush themes and colourful orchestrations with a quite distinctive use of the wordless female choir. Listened to in its entirety, the score forms a fascinating large-scale symphonic poem. The Main Title introduces the sweeping long-lined main theme which is one of Lavagnino’s finest melodic inventions and shows the enthusiasm he had for this project. Typical of Lavagnino’s style, the wordless female choir – by the way, it is remarkable that no male choir at all has been used for LA GRANDE OLIMPIADE –, the harp glissandi and of course also the high strings play an essential part throughout this score and often give it a mellow tone as well as a sensual sheen. Often the choIr adds an almost mystical, poetic atmosphere to the sports events. One delightful theme after another crops up in this score: There is an impassioned and operatic theme for the torch relay montage, a spirited hunting music, nostalgic music for the sailing regatta, a lilting and totally ear-carching melody for a Sunday in Rome sequence whistled by Lavagnino himself, a noble trumpet hymn for the decathlon ceremony and much, much more. All in all, this will therefore be a musical festival for all the aficionados of the composer. An absolute delight from start to finish and one of the best scores Lavagnino had ever composed during his long career. Some older collectors who have the now quite rare Cinevox LP in mono of Lavagnino’s VATICANO II will probably recognize some tracks as about 25 minutes of the GRANDE OLIMPIADE score had been reused for this Italian documentary in 1963, but there is still more than half of the entire GRANDE OLIMPIADE score which has never been available on any sound carrier before and which can now be heard for the first rime ever on this CD.
We hope that many fans of the composer and of classic Italian film music may now enjoy for the first time ever on CD the splendid beauty of this exciting symphonic film score. Our CD edition comes with a 12-page booklet with extensive liner notes about the film and the music by Stefan Schlegel and a short commentary by German sports legend Armin Hary who won two gold medals at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
The CD will be officially released next week and is now available for pre-order at SAE:
http://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/30034/LA-GRANDE-OLIMPIADE-500-EDITION/
Sound samples will soon be available there.
1. Main Title - The Olympic Athletes Arrive 4:12
2. Entry of the Greeks - Kindling the Olympic Torch 1:57
3. Torch Relay 3:40
4. Olympic Torch on the Campidoglio - Olympic Torch Leaves the Campidoglio 1:28
5. Flying Doves - Lighting the Flame 2:45
6. Hurdles Women 1:13
7. Hurdles Men 1:36
8. Gymnastics (Waltz) 4:18
9. 100 Metres Men 2:18
10. Cross-Country Riding 2:39
11. Yachts in the Bay of Naples - Sailing Regatta 3:07
12. Floodlight (Unused) 0:51
13. Sunday in Rome (Vecchia Trastevere) 2:01
14. Fencing Preparations 0:35
15. 100 and 200 Metres Women 2:17
16. High Diving 3:11
17. Decathlon 2:51
18. Decathlon Hurdles 110 Metres 1:08
19. Decathlon 1500 Metres - Decathlon Awards Ceremony 2:30
20. Show Jumping 0:35
21. 4 x 100 Metres Relay Men 1:31
22. Rowing 3:27
23. 20 Metres Men 1:34
24. Marathon Run 8:12
25. Marathon Awards Ceremony (Unused) 1:56
26. Finale (Unused) 3:21
Bonus:
27. Long Jump Women 1:08
28. Dining (Mambo) 2:30
29. Roadwalking 2:08
30. Sprinter Otis Davis 0:54
31. Pole Vaulting at Night 1:14
32. High Jump Women 2:19
33. Athletic Women 3:21
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Thank you, Stefan & Alhambra, for making this available on disc.
How long did this album's production take, Stefan, between from when you had first heard the tapes in the Lavagnino estate and its actuality by October of 2015?
Will the 7th Lavagnino disc via Alhambra be issued in December 2015 or January 2016?
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How long did this album's production take, Stefan, between from when you had first heard the tapes in the Lavagnino estate and its actuality by October of 2015?
Will the 7th Lavagnino disc via Alhambra be issued in December 2015 or January 2016?
I hadn't heard the tapes in the Lavagnino estate when I was there a few yars ago and had only seen them.
We received the Lavagnino tapes in June this year so that the album's production didn't take that long. I would say just about 3-4 months.
We don't manage to release the next Lavagnino CD till December 2015. February/March 2016 is much more likely.
Alhambra will release two other German soundtrack projects on CD during the next three months so that there is just no room for this next Lavagnino CD, although we already have the chronological sequencing for this score's CD.
But I can tell you that one of these two German projects and with which I am also heavily involved with is also a superb Golden Age title from 1959. I am just writing the liner notes for this CD which contains one of the best large-scale symphonic scores written for German cinema during the 50s. The score was composed by a famous German film composer who has not been represented on disc at all till now because normally no original material of his scores is available anymore. Also this wonderful score which we will release in about 5-6 weeks on Alhambra was of course long thought to be lost forever, but we could indeed discover the still existing original tapes and could get them - in excellent condition! - from the German production company. For me this is really another dream come true.
And no, the score is not by Rolf Wilhelm and not by Hans-Martin Majewski, but by an even older German film composer.
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How long did this album's production take, Stefan, between from when you had first heard the tapes in the Lavagnino estate and its actuality by October of 2015?
Will the 7th Lavagnino disc via Alhambra be issued in December 2015 or January 2016?
I hadn't heard the tapes in the Lavagnino estate when I was there a few yars ago and had only seen them.
We received the Lavagnino tapes in June this year so that the album's production didn't take that long. I would say just about 3-4 months.
We don't manage to release the next Lavagnino CD till December 2015. February/March 2016 is much more likely.
Alhambra will release two other German soundtrack projects on CD during the next three months so that there is just no room for this next Lavagnino CD, although we already have the chronological sequencing for this score's CD.
But I can tell you that one of these two German projects and with which I am also heavily involved with is also a superb Golden Age title from 1959. I am just writing the liner notes for this CD which contains one of the best large-scale symphonic scores written for German cinema during the 50s. The score was composed by a famous German film composer who has not been represented on disc at all till now because normally no original material of his scores is available anymore. Also this wonderful score which we will release in about 5-6 weeks on Alhambra was of course long thought to be lost forever, but we could indeed discover the still existing original tapes and could get them - in excellent condition! - from the German production company. For me this is really another dream come true.
And no, the score is not by Rolf Wilhelm and not by Hans-Martin Majewski, but by an even older German film composer.
I´m a big fan of your Lavagnino-releases, eagerly looking forward to "La Grande Olimpiade", but the information concerning the German Golden Age title is great news also, Stefan!!!
My guess: "Serengeti darf nicht sterben" by Wolfgang Zeller
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My guess: "Serengeti darf nicht sterben" by Wolfgang Zeller
Wow, really good guess, Stefan. 
How did you find out that it could be SERENGETI?
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My guess: "Serengeti darf nicht sterben" by Wolfgang Zeller
Wow, really good guess, Stefan.
How did you find out that it could be SERENGETI?
Well, Stefan, there are not that many famous German filmcomposer of the "first generation",
Herbert Windt, Giuseppe Becce, Hans Otto Borgmann, Zeller and maybe Alois Melichar.
Every single one of them did phantastic jobs! - just think of Herbert Windt´s Herrmannesque approach to "Paracelsus" (1942), Borgmanns operatic treatment of the Harlan melodramas or Melichar´s arrangements "MGM style" for the adaptation of "Die Fledermaus" (1945); Becce´s heroic scoring of the "Bergfilme" by Trenker may even be the reason for my personal interest in playing the frenchhorn;
by the late 50ies most of them were already in retirement;
Now take the fact into count, that Alhambra is also releasing soundtracks from documentaries...
In any case, the release of SERENGETI would leave me dancing a waltz (I´m from Austria, land of Johann Strauss 
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Well, Stefan, there are not that many famous German filmcomposer of the "first generation",Herbert Windt, Giuseppe Becce, Hans Otto Borgmann, Zeller and maybe Alois Melichar.
Every single one of them did phantastic jobs! -by the late 50ies most of them were already in retirement;Now take the fact into count, that Alhambra is also releasing soundtracks from documentaries...
In any case, the release of SERENGETI would leave me dancing a waltz (I´m from Austria, land of Johann Strauss
Many thanks for your comments, Stefan. There were also a few more older German film composers still working in the late 50s like Mark Lothar or Werner Eisbrenner, but you are right that there are not many of these composers who would come into question for films made in 1959.
Anyway, I can assure you that probably in mid November you will be dancing a waltz in Austria
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Zeller's VAMPYR would be awesome too !!!!!
Almost all of Zeller's original manuscripts have been archived in the German film museum in Frankfurt. So if anyone wants to do a new recording - but who will do it without any funding? -, just get the material from there.
But Zeller did not preserve any tapes of his original fim music recordings. So there is nothing in the Zeller estate at all. Therefore you can imagine that the recordings of VAMPYR are long lost.
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